Sue Flanagan’s Website

The first Great Lakes Pastel Society convention was held in Ypsilanti, Michigan at the Eagle Crest Resort. It was a very well organized event and an enjoyable weekend. I arrived on a Friday evening to register and enjoy the reception for the participants. It was stressful driving across Michigan because of the heavy rain. This unfortunately made it challenging for the artists who were participating in the plein air painting near the resort. However, it did not stop them and their paintings were hanging in the reception area. There was a computer slide show of paintings for the artists who were in attendance. It was a humbling experience because there were so many beautiful paintings.

In the next two days, I attended 3 sessions. The first was on how to digitally photograph your artwork. Now I have to learn more about my camera-ouch! The second session was a landscape demonstration by Larry Blovits. He is an accomplished artist and you can tell that he has a lot of teaching experience. Here are some photos of his demonstration of a fall scene. His photograph is his reference.

The third session was a portrait demo by Vianna Szabo. Vianna has a great ability to see color. Here are some pictures of her starting her drawing, doing an alcohol wash after blocking in with pastel, and then with pastel application. She did not finish but accomplished a lot. 

What did I learn from these great artists? There are many things but I was certainly reminded to be patient! There was a banquet Saturday evening. Richard Rubenfeld, an art historian, gave a commentary of modern pastel art. It included an interesting slide show.

It was a very pleasant weekend that was followed by some time in Saugatuck, Michigan. I painted an iris, beach and water scenes plein air. I hope you are enjoying summer and keep in touch with your creative side.
Sue Flanagan

Tags: GLPS, Great Lakes Pastel Society, Larry Blovits, pastel, plein air painting, Saugatuck Michigan, Vianna Szabo, Ypsilanti

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 6th, 2010 at 8:50 am and is filed under What's New. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.